Created by

Uploaded by

Virus scan

Tags for this mod

About this mod

Ambient light power and fog brightness inside all interiors reduced by 60%, without touching any directional light sources whatsoever, keeping lighting 100% true to vanilla except for those dark corners and unlit areas. Subways are actually dark and scary! Not just a filter, actual light data has been altered. All-DLC covered.

DESCRIPTIONThis mod edits all cell lighting data and templates to make ambient light and fog brightness inside all interiors 60% darker, without touching any directional light sources, keeping lighting 100% true-to-vanilla, except those dark corners and unlit areas. Subways are actually dark and scary! This is something I made for myself and have been using, but thought I'd share. This really lets the directional light sources (i.e. lamps) have a chance to shine (literally!)

This is NOT a post-process filter, a contrast adjustment, or other workaround that effects the overall screen brightness levels like you may have experienced. Every single interior cell in the game (282 total) has been altered directly to reduce the ambient lighting by 60%, but all placed lights such as candles, lanterns, bulbs, etc are 100% untouched. A number of common interiors will actually even seem like they're the same, because they are lit really well with direct light sources. That's the goal, this is just for those unlit areas and dark corners.

If you are familiar with Enhanced Lights and FX Enhancer option for Skyrim, this is the same approach.

The end result is that light feels a lot more realistic, and by cutting out some of the ambient light that Bethesda likes to wash interiors with, the direct lighting has a chance to shine on its own (no pun), and everything has a bit more color, and looks a lot richer. Opinions may differ, and I'll survive :)

As for the fog, this mod does not remove fog, or "push it away" like some mods, it simply reduces the amount by which light effects the fog. That is to say, the fog is still there, it's just 60% darker to match the drop in ambient lighting.

This may not be for everyone -- and that's fine! -- I play on a very bright HDTV and made this for myself, and it adds so much that I wish I would have made this before starting my first play through.

DOES THIS CAUSE ANY COMPATIBILITY ISSUES WITH OTHER INTERIOR CELL MODS?

Issues such as the cell reset bug were only persistent in exterior worldspace locations, i.e. Settlements and are not a problem with interiors. However, there was an issue discovered a couple months back with how the Fallout 4 engine uses precombined meshes, and pre-vis calculations. These are both generated in the CK for performance, and that data is crammed into the main cell record. This means if two mods edit the same cell, this data may get overwritten, and out-of-sync and can sometimes cause things like objects or pieces of walls to flicker or disappear. This wasn't an issue before, but as more and more interior overhauls are coming around, it's something to be aware of. It doesn't always happen but if a mod makes extensive changes (like Better Third Rail) it can.

OK THAT'S COOL BUT HOW DO I GET AROUND IT IF IT HAPPENS?

It's rare, but the easiest way is to simply place an interior mods that is experiencing this issue below Interiors Enhanced. For example, Elianora's Prydwen Quaters. You will lose my lighting changes for that cell, unless you open the mods in FO4Edit and drag my lighting data into that mod, but it's better than a disappearing wall! Keep in mind, if you see this, it may not be the fault of this mod. Some mods that do something as simple as place a bottle of Nuka-Cola on a counter-top can trigger this same issue, so make sure you're thorough in testing which mods are conflicting or you will lose your mind juggling load order. Feel free to post up in the comments asking for specific help with a combo of mods. Your immersion into supreme darkness is important to me :D

HOW DOES THIS COMPARE TO OTHER MODS i.e. FR4NSSON'S LIGHT TWEAKS?(only mentioning this mod by name because it has been asked a lot already!)

It's a little hard to explain: Other mods currently don't edit actual light output data, and instead edit what are called "image spaces", which are the game's post-processing filters that apply to the whole image/screen and control specific aspects, such as bloom, contrast, etc. This can have an effect on the overall image. What Fr4nsson's Light Tweaks does for "ambient light" is darkens the external sunlight values (which you normally would see out a window, for example), which can sometime bleed thru meshes in underground areas where it may not make sense. It also reduces overall light brightness and bloom of direct lights.

Interiors Enhanced, on the other hand, edits the actual ambient light output data, and as such, nothing else in the scene is effected. I personally wanted to edit the source of the lights, rather than filter them, so the normal lights in the game (and ENBs/ReShades/etc) looked the same.

They can be used together if you like! Though things will get very dark! In the end, use what you like best! Light Tweaks doesn't touch any cells, so if you're not comfortable with what this mod does, that's a good option though the effect is not the same.

INSTALLJust drop the ESP into the data folder manually, or via NMM, and activate it. Other mods that place objects in cells or edit them in other ways will overwrite my lighting changes (can't be helped, it's how the records work) unless my mod is placed AFTER (below) it in the load order. However, please note there is a well-documented issue with the way new cells are structured in the engine, so when edits are made to a vanilla cell, for example Elianora's awesome Railroad HQ overhaul, the combined mesh records and 'pre-vis' can conflict and cause weird things like floors/walls to disappear.

There is no easy way to "patch" every case, but all you need to do is put those specific mods BELOW Interiors Enhanced and they will load fine (but lose the ambient light changes in that particular cell for now.) If you really want the best of both worlds, grab FO4Edit, and you can simply drag and drop my lighting changes in the cell record into those mods loaded below to have everything work perfectly. I just can't make patches for every mod out there that makes changes to specific cells.

DLC LOAD ORDER INFO

If you are not using the all-in-one, make sure the add-ons load in the same order as the DLC does to the main Fallout4.esm. For example:

UNINSTALLShould be safe to remove at any time, as it's simply color alterations.

COMPATIBILITYIncompatible with other mods that do the same exact thing, of course. Mods that make changes to cells will conflict, though there aren't really any out there that do this yet, that I know of.

You could use it along with Fr4nsson's Light Tweaks, but interiors will become absurdly dark, since they will effectively stack on top of each other. (i.e. I darken the source, he darkens the whole picture further, so it's omg mega dark.)

This was designed as a companion to Darker Nights, and is fully compatible (in fact, Darker Nights is highly recommended.)